328 RESEARCHES ON FUNGI 



size, colour, and viscosity, by its having become flattened out like 

 a bullet as a result of striking the stand, and by its spore-contents 

 as seen beneath the microscope. The stand was actually 18 inches 

 higher than the fungus gun. Had it stood at the same level, there 

 can be no doubt that the horizontal distance to which the glebal 

 mass would have been propelled would have measured at least 

 15 feet. 



Fig. 163. — Graph illustrating the motion of projectiles discharged from a point 

 with the same initial velocity but at different angles of elevation. The 

 resistance of the air is not taken into consideration. In a the projectile is 

 discharged vertically upwards (angle of 90° with the horizontal) and attains 

 a maximum height of six units. In b the projectile is discharged at an angle 

 of 45° : it rises to a height of three units and has a horizontal range of twelve 

 units. This is the maximum range that can be attained and is equal to twic6 

 the height of a. In c the angle of discharge is 60° (15° more than in b) and 

 the horizontal range is 10' 4 units. In d the angle of discharge is 30° (15° 

 less than in b) and the horizontal range is again 10-4 units. 



Another Sphaerobolus fruit-body was inclined so that its axis 

 made an angle not of 45° but of only 40° with a horizontal plane. 

 The glebal mass, upon being shot away, struck the horizontal sheet 

 of tissue-paper which had been prepared to receive it. The pro- 

 jectile was found to have struck the tissue-paper at a distance of 

 10 feet 8 inches from the fungus gun which discharged it. Had the 

 gun been inclined at a slightly greater angle, it is probable that the 

 horizontal distance of discharge of its projectile would have been 

 several feet greater. 



A third Sphaerobolus fruit-body which had developed in the 



